Overcoming Pioneer Mentality
The heavy and dismantled feeling descended upon me yesterday while exploring the creek in Samuel P. Taylor State Park, the section that is right adjacent to the road but virtually untouched by modern-day humans. It was a section of creek I’d been wanting to explore for a long time, knowing it must be full of magical nooks and swimming holes, only a stone’s throw away from the road where I drive my car a few times a week. And to think that so many of us only experience that thin tunnel of road again and again, while the surrounding forest and waterway are virtually undiscovered by our senses. Over time, the feeling of the land being pregnant with possibility overtook me and I pursued my intrigue into this uncharted section of the creek. Perhaps I had crashed too carelessly through the willow branches; broken too many delicately woven spider webs. I was aware that I was disturbing the peace, and I apologized, sometimes...